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Development aid

From Louise Hilditch

European Voice

1/31/01, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 6:27 AM CET

We are delighted to learn (Letters, volume 7, issue 4) that Commissioners Chris Patten and Poul Nielson have agreed a paper on untying Community aid. It should give some much-needed impetus to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development discussions and banish from the Community aid programme what can only be described as an inefficient practice that encourages corruption.

The Commission’s proposal should extend eligibility to bid for contracts to all developing countries through a meaningful revision of current procurement rules – there is no logic to maintaining a regionally based procurement regime.

Whilst Commissioner Nielson is at pains to point out that Community aid is already open to all 15 member states plus those countries in the region for which the aid is destined, he will also be aware of the number and value of contracts that are actually awarded to developing countries. The level is disappointingly low.

Indeed, the Commissioner goes on to acknowledge that eligibility to bid for contracts alone will not open real opportunities for developing countries. We in ActionAid agree. That is why we are campaigning for donors to take a more targeted approach to procurement, transforming it into a resource for development and poverty eradication.

Untying aid is the first step in this process, and without it private sector capacity building in developing countries will be held back. It is heartening to learn that we are all working towards the same objective.